This event has passed.

Network Meeting Rotterdam

Name: Network Meeting Rotterdam
Start: 2017-05-08T00:00:00+00:00
End: 2017-05-09T23:59:59+00:00

8 May 2017 – 9 May 2017

The 22^nd NETLIPSE Network Meeting took place in Rotterdam on the 8th and 9th of May 2017. We would like to thank the Rijkswaterstaat organisation for all their support during this Network Meeting and all Rotterdam participants for their active and interesting contributions to discussions. We hope to see you all at the next Network Meeting in Germany on 20th/21th of November in 2017!

NETLIPSE Management Team
info@netlipse.eu

>> Please, scroll down for summary, presentations and photos

DAY 1

The 62 participants at this NETLIPSE Network Meeting in Rotterdam were welcomed by Per-Olov Karlsson, the NETLIPSE Chairman . Delegates represent 13 different European nationalities, from client/sponsor organisations. This is Per-Olov’s last meeting as Chairman and he will handover his duties to Stuart Baker from the UK Department for Transport . Rijkswaterstaat is thanked for organising and hosting this meeting.

Jean-Luc Beguin (Director Rijkswaterstaat Big Projects and Maintenance and member of the board) opened the meeting on behalf of the host Rijkswaterstaat. He presented the three main challenges of Rijkswaterstaat: sustainable living environment (foundation for everything), smart mobility and resilient partnership. He then showed us some examples from major Dutch projects facing these challenges. The discussion that followed focused on the challenges of collaboration between public client and contractors.

Lars Lilja, recently retired Trafikverket Project Director presented his project Norra Länken. This project includes the connection in the north of Stockholm, which was delivered at €300 mio. under budget and delivered one year earlier than expected. Three main reasons for this achievement: [1] organising a good competition with an international tender (which attracted foreign contractors and introduced innovative solutions), [2] successful handling of risks and [3] a changed law which allowed for temporary access of the park during construction.

Ingeborg Ligtenberg, Rijkswaterstaat Project Manager of the A6 motorway described the tender process applied and whichreceived the 2016 international Procura+ best tender award. Key aspect of the A6 approach is the functional specification of ambitions in order to simulate effective and innovative solutions from contractors. Ingeborg advises: “Strive for 100% sustainability, then it is clear for everybody and you can reach your ambition”.

Cor Beekmans, Head of the Liaison and Knowledge Management Department from Rijkswaterstaat’s Room for the River, presented his lessons from the Room for the River programme. Key success factor was the collaboration with important stakeholders such as regional and local governments, which changed their perspective from NIMBY (not in my backyard) to PIMBY (please in my backyard).

Hoite Detmar, North/South Metro Line Amsterdam Project Director, walked briefly through his project and the management measures taken in this last phase of the project in order to increase integrality of the six contracts involved. Testing and scope integration are the main challenges before the metro line will be opened at the 22nd of June next year.

Eric Marteijn, New Lock Terneuzen Project Director, thinks of himself more as a mediator than a Project Director. This is because of the many stakeholders from the two countries responsible for the project(Belgium and The Netherlands). The Belgians and Dutch have cooperated since the time of Napoleon in the 19th century, but that history does not matter… or does it? Key ambition to overcome cross border issues is the attitude: “I will not rest until I solve your problems”.

After a tour of the Markthal and boat ride over the Maas river, the day ended with a lovely dinner at the Euromast. With a beautiful future in store for NETLIPSE and at a height of 100 meters above Rotterdam – Per-Olov Karlsson handed-over his duties as Chairman to Stuart Baker. Per-Olov was thanked by all NETLIPSE members for his inspirational leadership of the last four years helping to make the NETLIPSE network grow, find new partners and interesting projects for an IPAT assessment.

DAY 2

New Chairman Stuart Baker started the second NETLIPSE day in Rotterdam with his preview of the day. First on the agenda was three presentations on challenges and lessons learnt in major railway station development projects from Milan, Utrecht and Vienna, followed by a short discussion.

Carlo de Vito, CEO of FS Sistemi Urbanidescribed that the Milan region is part of both the EU Rhine-Alpine and Mediterranean Core Network Corridors, connecting both the east and west and north and south of Europe. In order to come to a development plan, FS Sistemi Urbani organised a two day congress in which multiple international architect teams developed ideas and pitched them for seven railway stations of the Milan area and living city.

Han Berends, Public Transport Terminal Utrecht Project Manager, introduced his project which is part of the bigger urban development strategy of the city of Utrecht. A development that was initiated in 90s and will be finished in 2030. Biggest challenge is the partnership between the multiple public and private parties involved, in order to develop the complete central station area and combine multiple modalities of transport.

Sigi Herzog, Vienna Main Station Project Coordinator, presented the processes and mechanisms installed by ÖBB in order to keep the Haubtbahnhof Wien project in control. Implementation of a feedback loop on progress in time, costs and quality enabled the project team to finish the project on time all whilekeeping Leonardo da Vinci’s motto in mind: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”.

In the panel discussion between the three presentors there appeared to be similarities in challenges and processes of the different projects. Specifically the topic of risk management was more elaborated on.

Markus Ramlo – on behalf of Nye Veier (New Roads ) Norway – is welcomed as a new organisation to NETLIPSE. Markus is Project Director of one of the organisation’s regional departments. To address theirhuge challenges in highway development, Nye Veier found it necessary to push the limits of the construction market. Markus is very focused on development of project management skills for both the client- as well as the contractor organisations (for example the application of the requirement for the contractors to make use of 7% of apprentices in their teams).

Martina Huemann, Professor and head of the Project Management Group of WU Wien and also NETLIPSE Research Ambassador, summarized the results of the research workshop that took place the previous day and which focused on improving the collaboration between practitioners and researchers in project management. During the meeting in Rotterdam, eight universities were present and presented their topics of interest. Main point of Martina’s presentation was to show the diversity in the research focus and topics among the researchers present.

Luboš Ďurič, Director Road and Inland Waterway Infrastructure Projects, shared his experiences and results of the IPAT assessment carried out in the Motorway D3 Svrčinovec- Skalité project in Slowakia in 2014. After rereading the assessment report in preparation of this Network Meeting Luboš concluded that many of the improvement suggestions provided by the assessment team had been impelemented and that the results of the assessment, still ring true today. This proves the durability of the conclusions presented by the assessment team.

Jenny Karlsson, Trafikverket Project Manager and Lillian Brunbäck, Trafikverket Purchasing Manager described the advantages and disadvantages of the application of Early Contractor Involvement (ECI). In their project, ECI resulted in innovative technical solutions, better risk management (more risks recognised) and options to lower overall costs. They warn that there is a competent client needed because there is less competition involved and it was a challenge to understand the new collaborative model.

Last but not least, Pau Lian Staal-Ong, NETLIPSE Network Director, elaborated on the IPAT^© model (Infrastructure Project Assessment Tool), the IPAT process and roles and responsibilities as well as an overview of assessments carried out in the past. After having carried out enough assessments by the end of the year, the model will be reviewed and updated next year. Pau Lian also congratulated the people that took part (and passed) the assessment training. Three IPAT’s will take place in the second half of 2017 and there is only time and space for one more this year. Anyone interested in providing a project for an IPAT assessment and benefit from this intense practical learning opportunity, please contact Pau Lian at info@netlipse.eu. [click here for more information on the IPAT]